Self-closing door.



No. 782,224. PATENTED FEB. 14, 1905. F. M. EDMONDS.

SELF CLOSING DOOR.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 12, 1904.

2 al yg UNTTED STATES Patented February 14, 1905.

FRANK M. EDMONDS, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS.

SELF-CLOSING DOOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 782,224, dated February14, 1905.

Application filed December 12,1904, Serial No. 236,499.

To all 'u'h-o'nt it rmty concern I Be it known that l, FRANK M. EDMoNns,a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Holyoke, in thecounty of Ham pden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new anduseful Improvements in Self-Closing Doors. of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to the construction of self-closing tire-doors,the object of the invention being to provide a novel construction of alire-door arranged to be held open by a weight, the weight beingsupported by means of a connection extending across the dooropening andhaving a fusible link or section therein.

The particular novelty of this invention resides in the construction ofthe door-restraining devices and their arrangement relative to the door.

In constructions of this description which comprise a flexible cord orthe like as one of the component parts of the door-restraining devicesit has been found in practice that when these devices are released moreor less of the cord is likely to become entangled with some of the partsduring the closing movement of the door and prevent the completion ofthe closing movement. This invention is directed especially to means toovercome this defect, the door-restraining devices being so constructedthat immtaliately upon the rupture of the fusible section referred tothe weight which has held the door open will operate to throw therestraining-cold away from the door, thereby rendering it impossible forthe cord to in any way interfere with the free closing movement of thelatter.

The invention is fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, inwhich in Figure l a door-opening is shown with the door suspended on aninclined track, the doorrestraining devices and tripping devices formingthe subject of this application being shown applied thereto, the doorbeing held in an open position. Fig. is a view similar to Fig. 1 of thedoor-restraining devices in the position they would occupy immediatelyafter tripping. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the devices shown in Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the door a is i the lever is attached to thewall by means of suspended on an inclined track I) by means of thehangers 0, extending upwardly from the upper part of the door andcarrying grooved rolls r/ to lit the track, the track being so locatedrelative to the door-opening c that if not restrained the door will rundown the track and close said opening in the well-known manner. Asusual, the door is guided at the bottom by a guide-roll f to prevent itsswinging away from the wall.

On the wall near the upper outer corner of the door u is a groovedpulley supported to turn freely on a bolt or pin /1/. On this pin ismounted a freely-swinging arm j. in substantially the same horizontalplane another grooved pulley, m, is mounted on the door to rotate freelyon its axis 0, the two pulleys g and m being so disposed that a flexiblecord 1), carrying the weight I] at the lower end thereof, may be passedover the pulley 7, then partly around the pulley m, and the end 1' ofthe cord be hooked onto the lower end of the arm j. Preferably this end1 of the cord is provided with a metal gromet, so that it will slip offthe lower end of the arm /easily when said arm istilted toward thepulley m. The upper end of the arm j has connected thereto a llcxiblecord or wire a, which extends therefrom across the upper part of thedoor-opening 0 and is attached to the wall on the other side of saidopening, as at z, in any suitable manner, and in this cord or wire v afusible link 1' is inserted, which is located substantially at thecenter of the upper part of the door-opening. \Vhen the parts are inoperative door-restraining position, as shown in Fig. l, the weight 1 issupported on the cord or connection far enough above the ground orfloor, so that when it falls upon the rupture of the fusible connectionw it will throw the end of the cord p, which is attached to 1/1 on thedoor, and the natural movement of the cord under these conditions willcarry the end thereof off of the pulley 1/ also, and thus away from thedoor, leaving the latter free to run down its inclined track 6. \Vhenthe cord p is attached to the lower end of the arm j in l the mannerdescribed and the upper end of the arm f, around and away from thepulley the connections 3, the weight q obviously tends to draw the doortoward said arm j and against a suitable stop, as w, this stop beingformed by bending outwardly the end of the plate so, on which the wheel9 is mounted. Any kind of a stop may be arranged as a substitute forthis, of course. Upon the rupture of the fusible section Q) the weightwill obviously cause the cord 19 to swing the arm j around to thehorizontal position, (shown in Fig. 2,) thus permitting the eye in theend 0' of the cord or connection 1) to slip oil? the end of said arm andaround and off of the pulley on, substantially in the manner shown insaid figure. At the same time the quick movement of the upper end of thearm j will also pull the cord 8 quickly in the direction opposite to theclosing movement of the door, throwing said cords far enough to one sideto prevent its ever becoming entangled with the door as the lattercloses.

This construction of door-restraining devices does away with many of thedisadvantages of constructions of this type as heretofore made, in thatall of those parts of the device which might interfere with the closingmovement of the door are located at the rear side of the latter andimmediately thrown out of the way upon the rupture of the fusibleconnection c.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent of the United States, is-

The combination with a gravity-closing door, of a restraining device tohold the door open consisting of a pulley secured to the wall at therear of the door, a pulley secured to the door, a pivoted arm on theWall, and a cord running over said pulleys and having one of its endsremovably attached to one end of said arm, the other end of the cordbeing provided With a Weight; a connection extending from the oppositeend of the arm across the door-opening and attached to the Wall, therebeing a fusible link in that part of said connection opposite thedoor-opening.

FRANK M. EDMONDS. itnesses:

VVM. H. GHAPIN, K. 1. CLuMoNs.

